1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a network and, more specifically, to the efficient transfer of data through a network, as well as techniques for monitoring and management of a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional network is comprised of nodes and a router, typically arranged in a hub and spoke formation. A node communicates to another node by transmitting data to the router, and the router then couples the data to the destination node. The nodes are unaware of the presence of all the other nodes present on the network, but the router is aware of the presence of all the nodes on the network. The router stores the physical address of all the nodes on the network and facilitates the transmission of data from one node to another.
An ad-hoc network differs from a conventional network because there is no central switching point, i.e., a router, to distribute the data within the network. The nodes are aware of the presence of other nodes on the network, and data is transmitted across the network by passing the data through interconnected nodes.
One example of an ad-hoc network is a mesh network. A node on a mesh network receives and transmits data only during specific time slots. For example, a source node transmitting data to a destination node transmits data during a specific time slot designated for listening for data at the destination node. The time slot is designed with a length comprising a data portion and a portion allocated for propagation delay. Thus, the propagation delay and the distance between the source and destination node causes a portion of the time slot to be unutilized and the transmission of data is not as efficient as possible.
In a network where the distance between source and destination is unknown, the time slot must accommodate the worst case propagation delay. To avoid such transmission inefficiency, the propagation delay may be measured by using time synchronized nodes and sending time of transmission information between nodes. Thus, any node can compute the propagation delay by subtracting the current time from the time of transmission. The time slot length can then be customized to conform to the computed delay such that an entire time slot can be used for data transmission. However, to facilitate such a computation, the network is synchronized to a time base such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) or some other universal time base. Such synchronization adds cost to developing and deploying a network.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for efficiently transferring data through a time division multiple access network.